Steven Schnoor, documentary maker (http://www.schnoorversuscanada.ca/) and researcher has won a $10000 lawsuit for defamation against a former Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala for defamation. Steven filmed the eviction of a Guatemalan indigenous community from their land to make way for a large Canadian mining enterprise. The Canadian Ambassador on several occasions told organisations investigating the incident that the documentary was 'staged' and the woman central to the events was a hired actress.

Canadian mining companies have been involved in a number of incidents in Central America and southern Mexico involving forced evictions and selective assassinations of community leaders trying to block the incursions of Canadian mining companies with a questionable record of environmental practices.